A game that didn’t count nearly cost the Richmond High School boys basketball team its star player for an important playoff game.

Now that Feb. 17 contest against East Oakland Community High School may have serious consequences for the Oilers next season.

Richmond forward Wendell McKines was reinstated Friday, a day after he was suspended for the rest of the season because of a verbal altercation with an assistant coach during the East Oakland game.

He scored 21 points in Richmond’s 64-56 win over Hayward in a North Coast Section Division II quarterfinal Friday night.

“I am still getting information on the incident,” said Richmond principal Orlando Ramos, who originally suspended McKines. “I have several questions about this, and one was, ‘Why was this reported to me Thursday when it happened on Saturday?’ And all this comes up when the head coach is gone.”

Richmond head coach Roy Rogers left Wednesday night for Louisiana due to a death in the family and has not been available for comment. Ramos said he still is investigating the incident and a final decision could be reached Monday.

A bigger concern for Richmond is that East Oakland Community is not sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation and by playing the game, Richmond apparently violated NCS bylaw 2157 and CIF bylaw 502.

The bylaw states that CIF member schools must get permission to play non-CIF schools from the state. If a school violates the rule, it “may be barred from participation in that sport during the following season.”

NCS commissioner Tom Ehrhorn said Richmond’s game against East Oakland and possible punishment will be discussed at an NCS meeting on March 13.

The bylaws do not call for immediate punishment, meaning Richmond was allowed to keep its NCS first-round win over Clayton Valley, in which McKines played and scored 26 points.

“I have questions about that as well,” said Ramos about the game against East Oakland that was not approved by the NCS. “I don’t have answers because I haven’t spoken to Roy about that yet.”

The West Contra Costa Unified School District office was closed this week for Presidents’ Week recess.

More in News

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.